Danskammer sale lifts plan to ban future plant

Thursday

Apr 4, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Jessica DiNapoli

TOWN OF NEWBURGH — The 185-acre Hudson River-front Danskammer site could one day be home to another power plant. The original sale agreement for the plant included a covenant prohibiting Danskammer’s new owner from constructing another power plant on the site or repowering the existing one, which was badly damaged in Superstorm Sandy.

That covenant has been lifted to speed along the sale, said Dean Ellis, current owner Dynegy’s senior director of regulatory and government affairs, via email. The purchaser of Danskammer, ICS NY Holdings, plans to raze it and scrap material it recovers. New York State Public Service Commission must approve the sale of the plant and its sister, Roseton.

Last month, Dynegy laid off 58 union employees at Danskammer, said Carolyn Burke, Dynegy’s chief administrative officer. Two union employees and two non-union employees remain. They will work until ICS NY Holdings officially owns the plant. There have been no layoffs at Roseton, Burke said. The buyer of Roseton, a subsidiary of Castleton Commodities International, will offer employment to all of the plant’s existing employees, according to a filing with the PSC.